Project SqueezaPulse Conditionally Accepted by TEI'17
We are excited to announce that Project SqueezaPulse has been conditionally accepted to TEI 2017 Papers. [read more]
Project Sidewalk in The Diamondback
The UMD newspaper, The Diamondback, just wrote a nice piece on Project Sidewalk. Check it out here! [read more]
Majeed Featured in Maker Spotlight
Majeed Kazemitabaar was featured in Make's Maker Spotlight today for his work on maker tools for children. The article covers Majeed's background, his work on MakerWear, and some shout outs to the HCIL Hackerspace, the Makeability Lab, BodyVis, and alumni member Leyla Norooz! Congrats Majeed! [read more]
Join us at the Silver Spring Maker Faire
The Makeability Lab and the HCIL are participating in the Silver Spring Maker Faire which is going on today from 12pm - 5pm. Our own Majeed Kazemitabaar will also be giving a special presentation on MakerWear as the "Maker in our Midst" at 2:15pm on the Main Stage. Full details are available here: http://www.makerfairesilverspring.com/ [read more]
Jonah Chazan First Place at HackMIT!
Our former high school intern, Jonah Chazan, and his team won first place (!) at HackMIT this year for their work on Window Share--a system that allows you to easily share content between computers by drag and drop gestures (see video here). Congrats Jonah and teammates! [read more]
CS Distinguished Lecture Kickoff: Bjoern Hartmann
It was my pleasure to help host the CS department's first distinguished lecturer of the year: Dr. Bjoern Hartmann from UC Berkeley. Bjoern is a dynamo and polymath in HCI--a leader in digital-physical fabrication tools, crowdsourcing, and creative design tools. Bjoern gave a great talk on Interactive Design Tools for the Maker Movement that covered research in and envisionments of a 21st century workshop. Watch the talk here. Of great relevance to us with the construction of our brand new CS building (the Iribe Center, which will have two large Makerspaces), Bjoern is the faculty director of the new Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and co-founder of the CITRIS Invention Lab at Berkeley. He has extensive experience designing, building, and using (for research and teaching) state-of-the-art Makerspaces. [read more]
Join the Scalable Thermography Team
Our research group (the Makeability Lab in the HCIL) is investigating new, scalable methods and tools for thermographic data collection and analysis. We are looking for talented, creative, and self-motivated undergraduate research assistants with strong technical backgrounds and an interest in environmental sustainability to work on a new, easily deployable thermographic sensor. We are specifically looking for student volunteers interested in developing valuable hardware and software skills over the course of the academic year while supporting an ongoing research project. Interested students should have one or more of the following skills and a keen interest in expanding their abilities in some of the other areas: Experience working with single-board computers and accessories Experience designing front-end and back-end web components Experience prototyping applications with Android devices Eagerness to learn and make with rapid prototyping technologies You will be working in the HCIL Hackerspace, will attend weekly research meetings, and will join a team of other talented undergraduate and graduate students. Our short term goal is a publication at CHI2017 and a potential submission to UIST2017. For best consideration, please read this page about undergraduate research and then send your CV and unofficial transcripts to mattm401@umd.edu and CC jonf@cs.umd.edu by September 21st. We will contact a subset of qualified candidates to setup interviews and request other materials. Full details are available on our announcement webpage. Please feel free to forward this announcement. [read more]
We're excited to announce the beta launch of Project Sidewalk, a transformative new tool that empowers anyone—from motivated citizens and caretakers to government workers and urban enthusiasts—to remotely and quickly label accessibility problems by virtually walking through city streets. Our vision is to fundamentally change the way accessibility information about the built environment is collected and visualized. Imagine, for example, maps that show the accessibility of our cities at-a-glance or a navigation app on your smartphone that provides accessible routes for people with mobility impairments. Join us! Visit http://sidewalk.umiacs.umd.edu to get started! Click “Participate” and complete a few short missions! In private beta testing, 126 users mapped the accessibility of over 245 miles of DC streets--that’s nearly 25% of all streets in the city (and greater than the distance from DC to New York!). With just 10-15 minutes, you can make a difference! DC is just the beginning. Our long-term vision is to deploy Project Sidewalk in every city in the world that has Google Street View! Be a part of this revolution! Help us make the world a better place for everyone! [read more]
Kotaro Hara Successfully Defends Thesis
I am pleased to announce that Kotaro Hara passed his PhD defense this afternoon on "Scalable Methods to Collect and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility Data for People with Mobility Impairments." It was a true pleasure advising Kotaro, my first PhD student. I will miss his generous spirit, creativity, and his passion for research with a social impact. This fall, Kotaro joins CMU as a post-doc with Jeff Bigham and Aaron Steinfeld. [read more]
BodyVis in 2016 NSF STEM for ALL Video Showcase
We are excited to announce that our research video BodyVis: Advancing New Science Learning and Inquiry Experiences received special recognition as Facilitator’s Choice in 2016 NSF Video Showcase : Advancing Stem for All. The event was held online May 17-23, 2016 to showcase cutting-edge NSF work related to improving teaching and learning. Over 23,500 visitors from 144 countries participated in this event to discuss their work, offer ideas to others, and disseminate innovative ideas [read more]
